I went to a Book Club meeting on Friday night. We were discussing Deafening by Frances Itani. We try to bring food that matches the book in some way. The book is set in Ontario during WW1 and the main character's family has a hotel where they serve tea daily. I decided that nothing could be more appropriate than tea biscuits.

I was watching 30 Minute Meals the other day and Rachael Ray made biscuits from a mix (I make mine from scratch ) but added freshly ground black pepper and asiago cheese to the dry ingredients before she added cream as the liquid. She suggested making small ones for a party as an appetizer. I was enchanted with the idea so made the biscuits as she suggested. They were wonderful I made tiny ones about 1 inch in diameter--I used a shot glass as a cutter. I served them on an attractive glass plate along with some honey plum jam that I had made last summer. The sweet with the salt of the asiago cheese was excellent! My friends gobbled them up and then we had dinner (roasted pork tenderloin, roasted potatoes, green beans, excellent green salad followed by blueberry pumpkin pound cake). I love pot luck dinners.

Mix the dry ingredients together. Rub in the butter until it resembles meal. Add the cheese and black pepper. Make a well and add the cream. Stir until it forms into a ball. Knead VERY briefly and cut into shapes. Bake at 425 for about 12 minutes. Serve hot or room temperature with jam.

In heavy saucepan, combine plums, sugar, water and lemon juice. Bring to boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium; boil, stirring and mashing occasionally with back of a spoon, 15 minutes or until thickened.

Remove from heat; stir in honey. Let cool to room temperature. Refrigerate in tightly covered jars up to 2 weeks.

I put the jam in small jars and freeze. It makes about 2 cups in total. I tried making 3 batches at once one time but it didn't work. Now I make one at a time and if I have extra plums, I chop them up and freeze them for another jam making time. I use any kind of plums--last summer I used damson plums (mmm) for one batch. I used plums from my neighbour's tree (mmmm) for 2 more batches. The colour of the jam is the most beautiful red. If you don't eat the jam within 2 weeks, it grows the most spectacular mould.

I've also used the same recipe for apricot jam and for peach jam. Both were successful although the peach jam was a little sweet. I think if I make peach jam again, I won't put in the honey.

I've also used the same recipe for apricot jam and for peach jam. Both were successful although the peach jam was a little sweet. I think if I make peach jam again, I won't put in the honey.

This is often my complaint with jams - they're too sweet. But I LOVE apricot jam and I suspect that I also love plum jam. We discovere the wonders of Santa Rosa plums last summer. (They made GREAT pie!) Thanks for posting your jam recipe.

Slightly Off topic:
Would you also recommend Deafening by Frances Itani?

I agree that biscuits made from scratch are better, and very easy. However, some mixes of this kind are really quite good and may have only the ordinary ingredients we use, but already mixed together. No added junk. (More expensive, though.)

It's been quite some time since I did any baking. I don't like doing it. Don't much like cooking, for that matter. But I enjoy seeing the hints and I often use the ideas presented in llizard's forum.

I find that Rachael Ray often does not put enough vegetables in her 30 minute meals. Or perhaps I don't watch her very often. She is on late at night when I finally start vegging out in front of the TV before nodding off to sleep. I notice she has many good ideas for making things fast and easy.

Slightly Off topic:
Would you also recommend Deafening by Frances Itani?

Yes, I found it quite compelling. I like reading about language acquisition and I found myself watching in the mirror as I said different sounds. "ch" and "j" look the same as do "t" and "d". Imagine how difficult it is for people who read lips. There were 5 of us at my Book Club. Of the 5, 3 had read it, 1 was about half way through and the other person has 2 month old twins--she has time for nothing but she likes listening to us discuss the book. The 3 of us who had read it all liked it a lot which is great. Our last book, Blade of Grass by Someone Whose Name Escapes me was not as well received. In fact, one woman said it was the stupidest book ever written.

I agree that biscuits made from scratch are better, and very easy. However, some mixes of this kind are really quite good and may have only the ordinary ingredients we use, but already mixed together. No added junk. (More expensive, though.)

I've never understood how it can be any faster to use a mix than to just make biscuits from scratch. Granted, I haven't made biscuits with a mix, nor did I see Rachel Ray making them. But I'm guessing one has to provide one's own milk and perhaps one's own oil too? Tea biscuits are so insanely easy to make and from what I learned relatively recently, one doesn't even have to measure very carefully.

Rachel Ray has lost her luster for me ever since I saw a bit of her Las Vegas on $40 a day show. I got the impression she didn't really have a clue about how to find good food (or even what was good) and/or that it was just a big advertisement for the various restaurants she visited.

The other thing that drives me nuts about her is that she throws EVERYTHING into the garbage. Why doesn't she have a compost bowl??

The other thing that drives me nuts about her [Rachael Ray] is that she throws EVERYTHING into the garbage. Why doesn't she have a compost bowl??

I've seen her put egg whites in the garbage bowl when she only wanted the yolks. (!) And I hate it when she removes the seeds from tomatoes and throws it away (me, I think the seed part is the best part, at least for tomatoes that have translucent seed sections).

I don't like the way she throws away half the carrot either . It only takes seconds to peel a carrot; cutting off the edges in a square takes longer and wastes the best part of the carrot. If she's going to do that, she should at least suggest putting the left-over bits in the freezer for making stock.